#okay so some of these weren't entirely relevant

[fanfics-for-you]

what's in a name? || Patrick Verona (TTIHAY) x gn!reader (Modern!College!AU)

AVAILABLE ON AO3 (SOON)

Inspiration: ✨️Patrick Verona✨️

Summary: Patrick Verona is apparently the most intimidating guy on campus. You just want to get by, pass your classes, and get to your actual dreams. When you casually approach him one day and decidedly are not scared of him, Patrick has some questions.

TWs: light language, use of Y/N (only like twice), second person POV (you, yours).

[[A/N: This is basically under the concept that you approach Patrick first, and aren't really as afraid of him as anybody else. He's intrigued. Also this is a college AU, because I am in college and I think it's weird to write about high school lmao. ALSO,,, I know this is incredibly niche and a dead tag, but... I watched the movie recently and was violently possessed to write this. The parasites in me what to continue this universe, but idk. Anyway. Enjoy :)]]

You were exhausted. Totally and completely exhausted.

You'd stayed up all night for your chem quiz, and still, didn't think you did great on it. Which made your day ever so worse. So, when you went to the library, and someone was sitting in the spot you always sat in, you halfway wanted to cry and halfway wanted to rip your hair out. Normally, such a thing wouldn't be a big deal, but today it was. So, with a certainty that rivaled a lawyer in court, you stomped over to the chair.

For a moment, the guy didn't even look at you. He kept staring at his friend, a surprisingly 'metal' dressing guy who was talking avidly about something.

You cleared your throat.

That's when they both looked at you.

You were entirely focused on the one in your seat. A taller guy with built shoulders, curly hair and a sharp jaw. In normal circumstances, you'd probably think he was hot. Today was not normal circumstances.

The man raised an eyebrow.

Okay, so maybe it was a little normal circumstances, but that wasn't relevant.

"What are you doing?"

The man answered, simply -maybe a little confused, "Sitting?"

"That's my spot," you clarified, pointedly.

"Oh, I'm sorry-" the man pretended to start getting up before pausing -speaking sarcastically, "-Oh wait, I've just remembered, this is public property."

Mindlessly noting that he had an accent that you couldn't quite place, you rolled your eyes, "I sit there everyday. Just give me the spot."

"You weren't sitting here all day," he pointed out, "-or else I wouldn't be here."

You pressed your lips together into a thin line, "I was busy failing a chem test, now get up."

His eyes skimmed over your face, thoughtfully, "Do you know who I am?"

"Why-" you sighed out, frustrated, "-would I know who you are?"

Even despite the comment, he did seem familiar somehow but you weren't going to tell him that.

He furrowed his eyebrows for a moment, and didn't say anything. You felt like you were going to explode in fiery flames.

You groaned, "Oh my god. There are thousands of seats on campus, just go sit somewhere else."

"Exactly," the man countered, "-why don't you sit somewhere else?"

"Because-" you huffed out a breath, "-that's my spot."

"And why is this spot so important to you?" He shuffled slightly, moving his hands along the cracks of the seat, "-You got something good stashed in 'ere?"

"Dear god," you huffed out a breath in defeat, "-Whatever. Enjoy your seat, asshole."

And with that, you spun on your heel and pulled yourself deeper into the library. Taking a breath in, you pulled yourself into a seat not too far from the original, but you were around the corner so you wouldn't have to look at his stupid face. You soured just at the thought.

You pulled open your chem book, and read through it -trying to figure out which ones you definitely missed, that way you could get the ballpark for what your grade might be. You really needed to know, to make sure your GPA stayed in the range for your dream university.

But, in the middle of it, you heard someone plop into the chair in front of you (it was a group of chairs, like for a group of people if necessary).

Before looking up, you spoke -sharply, "Do you mind?"

"Not at all."

Your eyes shot up at that familiar accent, and you frowned.

"You got the seat," you pointed out, bitterly, "-What the hell do you want now?"

"Your name," he answered simply.

You blinked, (what?) before settling back into your seat and flipping to the next page, "Yeah, no."

The man seemed to move forward, and unwillingly your eyes flickered to him (his curls moving with the motion), "Why not?"

"I don't give my name out to strangers," you retorted -flicking your eyes down to your book, "-especially not assholes."

"Don't know if I can change who I am," he smirked, "-but, I can work on the stranger part."

You frowned, eyeing him particularly, "Seriously, what do you want?"

"I already told you," he replied, fidgeting with something in his hands (you weren't paying attention), "-I'm Patrick, by the way."

"Well," you exhaled, sharply, and ignored his name, "-you're not getting it."

"Well," he repeated with the same sort of grin, "-I'll just have to work on that too, then."

You looked up at him again and squinted at him -trying to read him somehow. All he did was grin at you, a charming kind, of course, that made crinkles on his cheeks. You ignored the flutter in your chest that it gave you and darted your eyes back down to your book.

The next day, you were in better spirits. After studying for an entirely different class, you were pretty sure you aced that test. So, you weren't as pissed, thankfully. Until you went into the library to sit between classes like you always did.

You paused in your step and frowned.

The guy (Patrick, your mind treacherously noted) was sitting by your chair, mindlessly tapping his fingers along the arm of the chair. He wasn't in your chair, thankfully, but still, he was in the one beside it. Pointedly close.

You huffed out a breath, and moved toward the chairs, "What are you doing?"

"Sitting," he repeated.

You raised an eyebrow.

He seemed to take that as a repeat of the question -before saying, confidently (too confidently), "I'm studying for a test."

"You don't seem like the studying type," you retorted, throwing yourself into the chair and pulling out your laptop -realizing it was no use to try and get him to leave.

Patrick pointed out, "You don't even know me."

"And I don't intend to," you replied with ease, flicking your eyes to meet his, "-your point?"

He grinned the same bright one from before, amused maybe. Your heart skipped a beat, so you dropped your eyes back down to your laptop. He, on the other hand, didn't seem to look away.

"What's your major?" He asked, thoughtfully.

"I won't tell you my name," you leveled, scrolling through your online schedule for homework, "-but you think I'll tell you my major?"

"Well," he reasoned, "-a name is much more identifiable, but your major," he shrugged, "-not so much."

You eyed him again for a second, before saying, "What if you just want to look up my classes and hunt me down?"

Patrick smiled again, before asking, "What is your next class?"

"Why?" You ask, pointedly, "-So you can force me into talking to you again?"

"Preferably," he replied, grinning cheekily.

You raised an eyebrow, and bit your lip to pull down a smile that begged to quirk up, "I'm not telling you that either."

"What if I just follow you when you leave?" He questioned, curiously, "-Figure it out myself?"

"And what if I-" you smiled at him -patronizingly, "-call the campus police?"

He raised both eyebrows as if to say 'touché' without saying it out loud. You bit down another smile and moved back to your computer -pulling out your planner and jotting down dates.

"Your pissiness," he suddenly spoke, "-Are you often filled with boiling hatred?"

"No," you sigh out, before shooting him another patronizing smile, "-that's special just for you."

He laughed then, and something warm zinged down to your toes (you ignored it), "Do you seriously not know me?"

"Do you know how many Patricks exist in the world?" you point out, "-No, I don't know you."

"So you do remember my name," he smirked, patting along his lap with a mischievous gleam in his eyes.

You rolled your eyes but didn't say a word.

It ended up like that for the rest of the time, Patrick shooting questions now and then, and you shutting them down. His stupid smirk and low, rumbly, accented voice, you hated that he actually seemed kinda nice -all things considered.

But, as you stood up to leave, you decided on something.

"Literature," you said simply, gathering up everything into your bag.

He paused, shooting up his eyebrows, "What?"

"My next class," you answered, nonchalantly pulling your bag onto your shoulder, "-Intro to Literature."

Patrick grinned, bright and shiny, "Gen Ed?"

"Yeah," you answered, moving to put the last few things in your bag.

"Can I walk you?"

Your eyes snapped to him then, curiously -detailing the rather honest look, before answering solidly, "No."

He burst into laughter then, throwing his head back against the chair -you mindlessly watched his curls fall back with the motion and then snapped your eyes away.

"Same time tomorrow then?" He asked, still laughing a little bit (something in you twinkled).

"Nope," you exhale a breath, ignoring the disappointment that swirled into your chest, "-I'm not on campus tomorrow."

He seemed to falter for a second, "Do you live on campus?"

You raised a solid eyebrow, you really think I'd tell you that?

"Right, yeah, okay," Patrick conceded, holding up his hands in faux surrender, "-What days are you on campus?"

You paused, pressing your lips together, but something in you did it, "Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays."

He grinned a little brighter, "Are you here around the same time on Mondays?"

Something in your chest flipped, but even still, you answered, "That's what you have to figure out. Not me."

And then, you spun on your heel and walked out of the library. His laughter trailed out behind you, and if you had a small little smile on your face at the noise, that was only for you to know.

Monday came, and you woke up early and made your way to campus -the first class of the day was at the crack of dawn. You physically despised it, but so is the schedule of a college student. Plus, you still worked, so the earlier the better for your schedule -didn't mean it didn't suck though.

Sipping on your drink, you wandered back toward the cafeteria -crossing the main connecting area, where everything led to. There was a baseball game going on, not an official one by the looks of it, in the grass. Your eyes hinged on the game for a few seconds, the echoes of laughter shooting toward your ears. It looked fun, but you weren't too invested in being outside for that long. Before you could look away though, your eyes caught on a familiar frame.

Patrick.

His hair was tied back, and he was wearing a pretty bland tank top (just grey), with some typical jeans. With his hair pulled back, you could see his jaw more distinctively -the sharp lines clear from even this far away. (Not that you were looking.) The sun bore down on them but all of the players seemed to be happily distracted. And you kinda were too.

You pursed your lips, for a moment, and looked forward again after a breath, heading toward the cafeteria again confidently.

Before you could get very far, though, you heard a familiar accent.

"Hey!" He yelled, a little distant -footsteps following his voice, "-Hey!"

At first, you weren't sure if he was talking to you, so you kept moving.

"Shit, I don't know what to call you," he called out, breathless and much, much closer.

You spun on your heels with furrowed brows, and met his eyes over a few people's heads. The grin that swallowed his face whole should've been criminal, bright and twinkly and... charming.

Before you could say anything, he was by your side with heavy breaths -assumedly from playing baseball and getting over to you. Leaning over slightly, he leveled out heavy breaths. You were almost concerned enough to offer him water, but he seemed to settle himself before you could.

"Hi," he echoed, "-'Ve been looking for you all morning, what time did you get here?"

You blinked, all morning?

"I get here early, 7, and immediately go to class," you answered, a little blankly (looking for you, looking for you, looking for you).

"Oh," he paused, "-I got here at 8. There's classes at 7?"

"Obviously," you respond, because you did in fact just say it.

"Did you-" Patrick started, before pursing his lips together, "-Are you going to the library now?"

You furrowed your eyebrows, "No, I'm going to the cafeteria to eat between classes. Why?"

"I'm actually quite hungry myself," he avoided the question, "-Do you mind if I tag along?"

"What about your game?" You furrowed your eyebrows even further -eyeing him curiously.

"'S just to fill time," he explained, "-It's nothing serious. They're sure to find someone to fill in for me."

You flicker your eyes along his face, trying to read him. What's your prerogative?

After a moment, you come up with nothing and instead, just turn on your heel -leading the way to the cafeteria.

"I'm taking that as a yes, then?" Patrick called out from behind you, catching up and matching your stride with ease (despite you making no move to slow down).

You decidedly don't answer him, and say something focused elsewhere -eyeing him as you walk forward, "Do you always stalk people this much?"

Patrick laughed, catching your eye with his warm brown ones (they were almost sparkly under the sun of the day), "Only the ones that blindly hate me."

You pressed your lips together in a flat line (trying not to give anything away), "I didn't say that I hated you."

His face lit up at the words (and you couldn't decide if you regretted it or not), "Well, you could've convinced me."

You roll your eyes, and keep walking forward, "Not telling you my personal information isn't... hating you."

"I'm not sure not introducing yourself is exactly anything but hatred," he argued back, fluidly.

"I just told you that I don't hate you," you point out, "-so it isn't."

"Does that mean you'll eventually tell me your name?" Patrick asked, curiously.

You turned to him, flicked your eyes over him, and then looked forward again, "Maybe on good behavior."

He burst into laughter, brown eyes set on your face, "You're quite an enigma, you know that?"

"And you're not half the mystery you portray," you fire back, naturally, with the flow of the conversation.

He grinned at that, eyes shining with something you couldn't quite label, "You know, I don't think I've met a person like you. You're fearless in like a-" he motioned with his hands, "-casual way."

"I'm not fearless," you argue, approaching the door to the cafeteria, "-I'm just confident."

"Do they not go hand-in-hand?" Patrick offers, getting to the door before you and promptly holding it open for you -unflinchingly.

Something warm stirs in your stomach at the gesture (and his woodsy scent that brushes your nose as you walk past him), but you ignore it, "You can be certain and still be afraid."

"But knowing you're right doesn't necessarily mean-" Patrick followed you in, matching your stride again, as if it's natural, "-that you're confident."

You furrow your eyebrows, genuinely intrigued, "What do you mean?"

He paused, maybe a little shocked by your attentiveness, "Plenty of people know they're right and still concede to someone else because they don't want to fight it. You-" he pointed at you, "-will fight it."

"Well," you purse your lips, avoiding his eye contact, "-maybe I'm only like this with you."

"You," Patrick paused, "-You're not this fiery ball of rage with anyone else?"

You eye him for a second, before saying flatly, "Maybe."

"All of this seething hatred and impressive indifference just for me?" He grins, the big teeth-showing kind, "-I'm touched really. Because I am special to you in some weird kinda twisted way-"

Before you can stop yourself, you let out a laugh at his words -just a quick one. Barely there.

But you could still see the delight smooth along his face, and just knew he caught it.

"How much of that have you been holding back?" He tilted his head curiously, before continuing to push it, smirking, "-Oh I bet you think I'm hilarious."

Your heart skipped a beat at the smirk, and you simply pressed your lips together and turned on your heel to the food counter. There wasn't even a second before you heard footsteps following you.

"You're not denying it, you know," he called after you, close on your tail.

You peer over the selection of food, eyeing the different items thoughtfully, "But I didn't confirm it either."

"Still not denying it," Patrick hummed, sing-songy.

"You know," you turn to him (mindlessly noting that he is very close), sharply, "-someone can have one good joke and still be unfunny."

He leaned forward slightly, eyes set on yours -challenging, "Then tell me why it came out like you were holding it back?"

You blinked at him, once and then twice, the sudden closeness sent a shock through your brain and the challenging tone of his voice nearly gave you full-body shivers. You can't find words to say, and you can nearly see it processing on Patrick's face (the way that he had made your mind melt for a moment), so you turn to the counter and point at something random for them to pick out for you.

The woman eyes the two of you suspiciously, but still diligently pulls out a to-go plate and piles the... mashed potatoes onto it.

"Oh my god," he finally says after a moment (you ignore it).

You go through a few other items, and the woman gathers them onto the plate. You pay, grab your plate-

"You like me," Patrick retorts, and you're not even looking at him but you can tell he's got a shit-eating grin.

Your brain malfunctions for a moment, but you step toward the tables and fire back (on autopilot), "I won't even tell you my name."

He's hot on your trail, following you diligently, "You're avoiding the question."

You spin to him, and reply -sharply, "You didn't ask a question."

His eyes flicker along your face, taking you in (you want to squirm but you steel yourself in place -your eyes now challenging), and then he grins so bright that you'd need sunglasses in any other scenario.

"Oh, you're really into me," he continues, low, gravelly, accented voice rumbling through your ears.

You screw up your face into something defiant, roll your eyes, and turn back to slide into a table. Patrick follows you like a lost puppy. Well, an incredibly arrogant lost puppy.

"You're still not denying it," he slides into the chair beside you and you hate the way your brain swims at the woodsy smell that brushes your nose.

"'Thought you were hungry," you say, simply (avoiding the question and decidedly not denying).

"It was very obviously a ploy," Patrick chimed back, with natural ease -tilting his head slightly and looking at you with twinkling eyes, "-They had pizza out there for all the players. I've already eaten."

Your fork froze for a millisecond (even still, you were sure he caught it), and after a moment, you pulled it to your lips. Maybe conquering both of your lack of response and the way your mind lit up at the idea of 'he just wanted to see me'.

His smile and eyes seemed to soften slightly, as he leaned his head down to catch your eye and guide it back up to your natural gaze (your heart skipped a beat). His brown eyes were soft and if you were honest, maybe a little affectionate.

"What's your name?" He finally said after a soft few moments.

And just like that, for you, the moment snapped, and you rolled your eyes -turning back to your food.

"Oh, come on," Patrick tried to catch your gaze again, "-Look, I'll tell you. Patrick Verona. That's my name-"

You bit down a smile, as he motioned to you with his hands.

"-Now, your turn, tell me yours."

You raised an eyebrow.

Patrick let out a half-laugh, before leaning forward slightly on the table -not quite a breath away, but certainly closer.

"You're so stubborn," he laughed, "-I'll beg. You want me to beg?"

You can't help but let the smile slip onto your lips then, "Why would you beg for my name?"

"Because I want it," he pointed out, still grinning "-Because I want to know you, and personally, I think it should start with a name."

Your heart fluttered in your chest, and you let your fork hang there on the path to your face. You took a moment, scampered your eyes along his face (dark brown eyes so incredibly soft, curls coming down from where he put them up in individual tendrils). Your resolve was weakening, it was really and truly broken under Patrick Verona's hand.

Stupid pretty boys-

"Y/N," you said finally (quieter than intended), immediately pulling a bite to your mouth.

Patrick blinked, "What?"

"'S my name," you explain -shortly, moving a hand in front of your mouth as you chew, "-Y/N."

His eyes lit up at the words, that stupid charming grin smoothing onto his face as he repeated, softer than expected, "Y/N."

You shove down the fluster that begs to climb up your cheeks at his accented voice saying your name. It's something you'd never really thought about but now that it's said, you probably should've thought about it.

Patrick leaned back in his chair, eyes still set on you. He was still grinning, as he said simply, "Suits you."

You furrow your eyebrows, "What's that supposed to mean?"

He raises his hands in faux surrender, laughing to himself, "Jesus, you're a true ball of rage, you know 'at?"

"I'm not-" you huff out, and take a deep breath in, "-I'm not mad."

"Defensive then," he mends, "-You act as though I'm about to strike any minute."

You pursed your lips, "Whose to say you aren't?"

"Me," Patrick laughs, "-This entire conversation. The way I've acted around you since the beginning-"

"Oh, shut up," you roll your eyes, unable to stop the smile creeping onto your lips, "-you were an asshole once."

He groaned, but something like amusement was twinkling in his eyes, "You are the most stubborn human being on this earth-"

"You took my spot," you interrupt, sturdy.

"-It's public property," Patrick argued back, "-and how was I supposed to know it was yours before I sat in it?"

You paused, for a moment, before saying, "You couldn't. But, you could have given it to me when I asked."

"And then we wouldn't be here," he explained, now fully grinning, "-and wouldn't that just be such a bore."

Your eyes swam over his face a moment, Patrick Verona. And his dumb persistence. And his stupid handsome face-

God.

You let out a long sigh, picking around at your food. Eyes watching the swirl of your fork, you debate a few different things to say. Finally, after a few spare seconds, you made up your mind.

"Yeah," you hum, flickering your eyes up to his, "-it would."

Patrick grinned, big and bright and twinkly (you felt your heart skip a beat in your chest). His eyes, the deep brown that if you weren't careful you could stare at for way too long, were soft but still sort of happy, eager. Definitely eager.

And maybe, just maybe, you could get used to-

"I told you I could work on the 'stranger' thing," he suddenly said, smirking, "-You never should've doubted me."

"What?" You raised an eyebrow, confused.

"You said-" Patrick explained, "-you don't give your name out to strangers. And I said I could work on that part-"

You level a look at him.

"-And look, I did," he continued, before adding with a smirk, "-I have successfully escaped the cavernous barrier, deeper than the ocean I'd say, that walls you off from any poor soul who wishes to know you-"

"You're really pushing it, Verona," you chime back, fiery (but not quite all the way).

"What?" He raised his eyebrows, like he said nothing at all to warrant the reaction, "-You can't tell me that it's not like pulling teeth getting to know you. Or trying to anyway-"

You press your lips onto a flat line, "Wow, you must be a sort of masochist, then?

He faltered for a second, before laughing a little, "Oh absolutely, I chase the high of you ignoring me for 2 hours straight every day."

You rolled your eyes, biting down a smile, "I despise you."

"Better that than indifferent," he responded with ease, "-I prefer you feeling something rather than nothing at all."

"Oh my god-"

It continued like that, a back and forth, as you finish eating your mediocre cafeteria lunch. The silence is sparse but not uncomfortable when Patrick isn't running his mouth, that is. It was nice. Insanely nice. You'd probably never had as much fun on this campus as you did with him, just in general, but...

"Same time Wednesday?" He poses with a cheeky grin, leaning onto one hand against the table -closer to you than before.

You felt something warm swirl into your stomach, as your eyes flickered over his face. He was still smiling, like he wasn't able to stop when he was here with you. And something in you never wanted to see it go away anyway.

So, with a slight head tilt and a brighter grin than what you'd let slip past all day, you repeated.

"Same time Wednesday."

[sophie-frm-mars]

Transmisogyny discourse on here has such an annoying shape to it.

Like I know that a bunch of it is just because it's from people who are / have always been very online / don't have much life experience as with all discourses that take on annoying shapes so I've been trying to not get too fixated on it but like,

Okay TMA (Transmisogyny Affected) and TME (Transmisogyny Exempt) are absolutely useful and valuable terms in the discussion of transmisogyny and how it works, because you need to be able to talk about who transmisogyny directly affects in order to talk about it. The much larger group of the total population is TME people, because that's (broadly) all cis people, and transmasculine people. So the majority of transmisogyny is necessarily directed from TME people to TMA people, but it's important to understand that as a social force it is actually directed from everyone towards TMA people. Trans women also engage in and perpetuate transmisogyny, sometimes incredibly vicious and harmful transmisogyny - the point of these terms is to identify the groups relevant to the discussion, not to identify an innocent oppressed class and an oppressor class who does entirely 100% of the social dynamic.

The next annoying part of the discourse is that in talking as if TME people = the transmisogyny doers, we keep winding up at a transfems vs transmascs discourse. This part of the discourse is like 1 part transfems misidentifying where the fight worth fighting is to 5 parts transmascs wanting to talk about ways they're also oppressed to like 20 parts raw transmisogyny. Yes, people who perform masculinity under patriarchy are more respected by partriarchy and get some benefits from that, and this is reflected in the differences between experiences of transmascs and transfems. This will be true everywhere that there is the basic patriarchal binary gender division between masculine (possessing agency, meaningful subjectivity, power) and feminine (being a type of property that belongs to others). Incidentally this is why the dyke butch/femme dichotomy is just there to sell more gender.

Everyone should get to perform their gender in a way that makes them happiest, and the problem is that we live under a patriarchy, which disempowers some people for the ways they perform their gender. I'm getting really basic here because some people on here talk like they need reminding.

The real reason the discourse is annoying though, just like all online discourses are, is because none of it is about how to organise to actually fight transmisogyny - that is, to make things meaningfully better for transmisogyny affected people.

2 years ago in the UK a teenage trans girl, Brianna Ghey, was stabbed to death after a prolonged campaign of transmisogynistic bullying by her classmates that the adults in her school life were absolutely aware of and did nothing about. Her death was the most important thing to every trans person in the UK for a moment, and then the political energy just dissipated without gaining any momentum. This is because organised structures of trans community, protest, politicisation and direct action just weren't there.

3 years ago in the UK a cis woman, Sarah Everard, was murdered by a police officer. There was an organised vigil which was politicised by Sisters Uncut, a feminist direct action group with chapters across london and the UK which had evolved to embrace police abolition over the course of its existence. The police escalated against the vigil and the spectacle of the police crackdown on women mourning the death of a woman murdered by police became a crucial moment in police abolition discourse in the UK. Because Sisters had already been laying down the organisational infrastructure for years, because it had been holding discussions among members and because it had responded to its members needs, it was in a strong enough position to act quickly and make change in the public consciousness. (You can read more about this in Abolition Revolution by Aviah Sarah Day and Shanice Octavia McBean.) If there was an organisation half as well put together as Sisters Uncut present in the trans community in the UK when Brianna Ghey was murdered, the organised response could have done something similar and meaningful.

I wrote a bit here about how trans people could use an assembly-organisation model to achieve meaningful change, but that's just my personal proposal for what would make a difference. The larger point is that discoursing over transmisogyny online, just like all discoursing online, is just shadows on the wall of the cave.

[minyard-05]

okay here's my take on the perfect court (tattoos/markings, i have a different set of thoughts about the concept as a whole)

roman numerals are cool, dgmw, but somehow they feel too cool for what the Court is. because like. riko and kevin wrote those numbers on their faces as kids, probably with sharpies, back when exy was just a game and the ravens were just a team. so to me it makes the most sense for them to be in arabic numerals (1,2) rather than roman ones because to me it feels like there's something almost inherently childlike about it? as in them literally writing the numbers on their faces, probably not too long after they learned their basic numbers, and i feel like at some point they tried making them look like their jerseys too or something.

the perfect court only exists because riko says it does, and he created it inside an echo chamber of the nest and the press that was willing to fuel his ego for a good story. riko was preparing the perfect court for people who weren't even ravens, i mean he had a number set aside for andrew even after andrew refused. he was convinced that he was able to build the Court he wanted, purely because he was king, and not only did his Court exist only inside the nest, but riko did as well. him dying after finals was truly the only way to end the story, because if none of the ravens left the nest well-adjusted, riko never would've been able to fit alongside a pro team. without his castle, his court, he's nothing.

and outside of the nest we see just how quickly it all falls apart. kevin gets his tattoo covered up. neil's is burned off by his father (semi unrelated but still relevant). the only person left with his Court tattoo is jean, which is a whole other can of worms, but the point is that the perfect court was always a child's game and nothing more. the entire existence of it centers around riko and kevin being 1 and 2 and everybody else following after, but that's never been true. riko's arrogance and his belief that through force he can shape the world into what he wants it to be is exactly what killed him, and it killed his Court too.

[colorisbyshe]

List of my Veilguard Complaints... just all together... getting it out of my system and then making it reddit's problem:

This game felt so emotionally flat. I think... the reviewers calling out the game for "therapy speak" weren't entirely wrong. It's more exposition speak and the fact that EVERY SINGLE feeling EVERY SINGLE trauma EVERY SINGLE event needs to be processed, out loud. It's not "too woke," it's just emotionally... spacious. Because you're forced to explore EVERYONE'S interiority... it feels like they have none left, does that make sense? No one has hidden depths because they announce and process every thing they go through, often immediately after it happens. It's hard to imagine any additional depth

It's also hard because... no one... has that much depth. Everyone has weaknesses and bad things that happened to them but it feels like there was a lack of... real character arcs? People had character sub plots. "Accept this thing about myself" was the main one. Which... doesn't help the therapy speak accusation.

No one is a bad person. The crows? The human trafficking, child soldiering, murderous gang? They're the good guys and we should be happy they rule Treviso! Lucanis is just a good guy doing good work. Neve works with Magisters and Templars and some of them are bad... but not her friends. She only works with the good ones! The dalish form a group with Qunari and human members and they're just a diverse coalition who... love mages now (despite having kicked them out last game?? okay). Literally NO ONE is allowed to be EVEN A LITTLE morally dubious unless they'er a Bad Guy or they're fucking solas

I MISS BIOWARE GREY MORALITY! THATS HOW BAD IT IS! I FUCKING MISS IT I MISS IT I DO BRING BACK ANDERS BRING BACK ZEVRAN BRING BACK MORRIGAN AND FUCKING CULLEN AND FUCKING BLACKWALL BRING BACK ISABELA BRING BACK MERRILL AND HER DEMON SHIT! BRING IT BACK

"Oh, we're treasure hunters but we're not COLONIZERS! We don't steal cultural artifacts! We return them to the real owners, we're pirates but we're NICE AND RESPECT PRONOUNS!" CHRIST ALIVE!!!

EVERYONE WE MEET IN TEVINTER IS NICE??? EVEN THE GANG??? THE THREADS GANG IS NICE!! THEYRE SCAMMRES BUT THEYRE SO GOOD ITS A HAPPY ENEDING IF ONE OF OUR COMPANIONS RUNS THEIR GANG??? WHAT???

It was... a little bit awesome to have dorian become a violent revolution man but like????? Then Minrathous gets nuked so the game is too cowardly to even do that shit

AND THATS THE OTHER THING! This game made sure NOTHING matters choice wise! Oh, you chose to save Minranthous? It gets nuked at teh end. Oh, your choices fro previous games? Only matters if you romanced Solas but Dorian might call your Inquisitor "Amatus" in a non-cut scene dialogue. FUck you if you romanced anyone else. Southern Thedas is just.... all dead now... it's over... so any choices you mad ether eare NEVER going to be relevant. The companion personal quest choices really don'tmatter and won't matter next game.

THEY KILLED THE DNA OF A DRAGON AGE GAME! No grey morality, no meaningful choices, fuck... barely any romance once you flirt (NO POST-ENDING ROMANCE SCENE!!! EVEN MORE SHY ABOUT NUDITY!), AND NO FUCKING THEMES!

What was the theme of this game? Following Solas' story, it might be redemption or letting go of the past, I guess, but?? Do the main stories tie into that? Not really. We have ONE part of a hcapter be about Rook letting go of regrets... for deaths that jUST happened not even anything lingering.

Plots around OPPRESSION ANTI-ELF AND ANTI-MAGE DISCRIMINATION?? Gone... IN A STORY ABOUT TAKING DOWN SLAVERS... LIKE THE OG SLAVERS??? Yeah, it doesn't matter. We have idle talk about slave revolutions and that's... it?? I'm an elf in Tevniter and no one cared. What? Qunari and Elves and humans are all besties except the Antaam (some of which still become besties)... what? How do yo drop the single strongest through-line in the series?

"Oh, well it takes place in the north, it's different rfrom the south!" OKAY BUT THE FALL OUT IN THE NORTH LITERALLY NUKED THE SOUTH OUT OF EXISTENCE, I CAN'T GET SOME LINES ABOUT CULTURAL DIFFERENCES! Or like... a line referencing what happned to the southern wardens after... y'unno... the whole betrayal thing last game? That's all chill?

Varric's plot twist was fucking stupid. See: this post.

The romance with Neve was sooo promising btu felt passionless towards the end. Maybe there are better choices but... the lack ofreal closure burns. No final kiss, just a wobbling "I love you" that sounded like it came after pulling teeth like... no passion for real?

Taash's nonbinary plotline sucked. I'm sorry. It did. As a nonbinary person I can say that.

Harding was so OOC it fucking hurt.

I chose her for the mandatory death because that wasn't my harding. It's absurd that that limited the mandatory death thing to two potential characters?

Larger casts are always hard but it feel slike they rly struggled to make all characters relevant to the main plot. Taash's mom/gender struggle could've been skipped. Emmrich was amazing but felt like he was a part of an entirely separate game. Bellara's archive plot felt close-ish to teh main plot of letting go of the past but the fact that you can choose to keep it going kinda... makes it less relevant. Idk.

Besides... Lucanis... and sometimes Bellara and sometimes Harding no one feels like they're reacting to the plot. The fact that a character can die but it's skimmed over after a scene and some chats is insane. The pacing is terribleeeee like oh I can watch Harding and Taash's terrible romance (I'll say it!! Harding acts liek a doting mom and NOT in a sexy way) in dialogue across several missions in the Lighthouse but we zoom past companions dying? THe world ending??

The world was beautiful BUT THE WORLD BUILDING SUCKED! Sorry but SOOO many locations make NO sense construction wise. Why is a chest in the middle of street? Why does this bridge only appear when I have a quest? It's hard to tell when an area is inaccessible because you haven't figured out how to get there vs you literally aren't allowed to go there yet. It makes the world feel more like Oh I'm playing a game rather than you're exploring a real place. They did not navigate inaccessible areas well as a concept.

CHARACTER MOTIVATION EQUALLY AS FUCKING MESSY! I still don't know what Elgar'nan/Ghilan'nain's plan rly was even though Ghilan'nain literally wails about them. They wanted to rule, they were blight addled so I guess they're insane, but... why did they have to do it this way? What were they gonna do as rules?

Solas wanted to tear the veil down ti imprison them even harder except tearing the veil down lets out the blight except letting them out of prison also lets out the blight and don't worry when he tears the veil down he'll imprison/kill them again and make sure the blight isn't too bad even tho the veil was the only thing keeping the blight in?? And oh haha killing them lets down the veil. Also, AFTER killing htem, the veil takes a while to be torn and actually stays in place long enough for Solas to feel bad and patch it up with his own essence... okay?

The Butcher Antaam dude looooves Treviso so he accepts the blight into his body to rule it but you have to fight him.. to prove you're worthy of keeping him... from destroying Treviso? He loves it and also wants it destroyed. Again, he's blighted so he's CRAAAZY but... what?

Even with Emmrich! He's scared of becoming immortal because he's a afraid of death. So you resolve that by either pressuring him to never die by being immortal... or by not letting his friend die? Huh? We conquer fear of death by just... not letting things die?What?

Not the same thing but why would dorian stay up in the north to become an archon if he romanced an inquisitor who is fighting for their life in teh soutH? again this continuity SUCKS

[chrisgotitall]

okay imagine it’s like a super hot summer day (pretty relevant since it’s august) and mike gets home from a REALLY, EXCRUCIATINGLY long day at work exhausted by working, the heat, he hasn’t eaten well or drank any water today. so he comes in feeling and looking pretty light-headed and weak. reader obviously notices that something is wrong and after they exchange a few words he kinda has a passing-out moment and collapses because of everything going on today (hey, it happens to the best of us!) reader is obviously worried sick, but luckily the girl knows her first aids! she helps him out and waits until he regains conciousness. he does blackout a few more times even after he wakes up and he is a little out of it throughout the day but reader takes great care of him and makes sure to keep him off of work the next day <333

you do like a good nurse x damaged health kind of trope

When Mike gets back from work that day it's pretty obvious he isn't feeling well at all.

"Oh my god, Mike... are you ok?" you get up the couch reaching him immediately.

"Yes, I'm fine..." he says, gasping for air as he speaks.

"You're not" you insist.

"I'm okay... I just need some water" he says, going in the kitchen so get some.

You watch him attentively knowing for sure something is wrong. He looks nauseated, pale and weak.

"Mix that water, it's too cold, you're gonna get congestion" you tell him before he drinks an entire glass of iced water.

He stands near the counter for a bit, contemplating how he feels while you're still watching him closely.

"I'm ok... I sw-" he suddenly stops speaking and he loses control of his body as he faints.

You run to him in time to catch him in your arms and drag him on the couch.

You take off his clothes to promote perspiration and let him lay down. You prepare a cloth, you wet it with some water and you pat it all over his face.

"Mike..." you try to call him.

Once again, he's been working himself off masochistically even with all the heat outside. You can't believe how stubborn he is. Enough to reduce himself like this. He's unbelievable, really.

You take some pillows and put them behind his legs to lift them up.

You continue wetting his face with the fresh water.

He wakes up after a bit.

"Hi, mr. I'm Fine" you say.

He sighs and takes your hand, kissing it gently.

"I am fine" he says.

"You know, I prefer you fainted" you tell him, a little annoyed.

He has the nerve to give you one of his smirks even after he just woke up from a collapse.

"You're working too much and you're not keeping attention to what you do beside it" you finally let out.

He stands up a little, "There's no such thing as working too much, I'm only doing my job" he says.

"And I get it. And I love how dedicated you are but when the weather's like this and you're working outside you have to be careful at what you do other than your work" you explain, "Did you drink any water? Have you made sure to stay out of the sunlight when you weren't shooting? Have you protected yourself from the sun? I didn't see any hat on your head when you walked in"

You realize you're being harsh on him but that's for his own good, he should act out these things.

"I wasn't careful at all, I know" he simply says.

"I know that too"

You get up to put his dirty clothes in the washing machine and to get him some more water.

"You took off my shirt..." he says, wanting to be funny and to lighten up the moment.

You look at him trying not to show your smile at him.

"Sit up, douche" you hand him the glass of water.

He drinks the water and thanks you afterwards.

"I'll just wait for the day where I'll feel bad and you'll take good care of me"

"I'll be ready to take good care of you when that day arrives" he answers.

You spend the rest of the evening hydrating him and making sure he regains the strength.

"I have to be out by 7 tomorrow so if you're going out too we can go together" he says, while you were sitting on the couch watching TV.

"Oh none of us is going anywhere tomorrow" you respond, not looking at him.

"What?" he says, startled.

"I called in sick, for both of us"

You look at him and give him a kiss on the cheek while he looks at you, dazed.

[kaleidescopeghost]

Hey with the stuff on womanism, why do you think those like 2-3 white folks were say hating? On the black community, from what I saw they saw a word they never read before and were confused. Instead of educating people told them to choke and die which I don’t think helped anyone out

Well, I don't think those folks were intentionally hating on specifically the Black community as a whole, but they were definitely hating on the term Womanism (simply for,, sounding Black and being a term they never heard before, even if they didn't realize that was Why the term sounded so strange and unnecessary to them) ((probably bc they don't ever actually Talk to Black people tbh)).

However, that being said, it was Not just a case of innocent ignorance, they weren't Just Confused, they were incredibly rude and that's a Major distinction that needs to be acknowledged--Even the people who looked it up on a very surface level immediately agreed with the people who had No clue what it was Stupid and basically pointless, which was just ignorant and rude even when read with good faith. They looked at this term that wasn't theirs, wasn't even About them, and started piling up on this one Black person for calling them out on their aggressive and willfully ignorant behavior (one of those people being an open LGBTQIA+ exclusionist who has a long ass post with the phrase "inclusion is harmful" in it and the Context being they believe the queer community should be, well. Just LGBT, and they consider Q+ folk to be just,, inherently invalid which is Just nasty behavior that I want to mention because it matters who says what and what they believe in conversations like these).

Frankly, I don't mind educating. I'm very used to it and I'm good at what I do-- but this Black person showed discomfort and distress because these folks were just. Attacking a movement that is Important To Black People and Other People Of Color, and they were met with "Just Educate These Adults!!!" "Do you get mad when Literal Children don't know things?? Do you tell them to die when they have Questions???" "People don't know keywords to search for!!" And pushing all this blame for the situation on this person which wasn't fair because truthfully we live in the Internet age and marginalized communities don't Owe anyone a calm, polite, collected, gentle education when those same people are calling shit they don't even understand stupid just for existing, especially when it's culturally relevant, and we're Especially allowed to get mad about the way these people can just Say Whatever and immediately get backed up when they were just incredibly rude for no reason-- we're allowed to get rude back too! :') in all honesty, it was the call out and the disapproval that Was the education ( the lesson being What They Said Was Bad! And that they needed to go give themselves some reeducation bc their ignorance is leading them to say harmful things). It can be a tough pill to swallow, especially when you don't know the gravity of what you're even saying and then being met with harsh rejection, but the only reason that happened was because these folks looked at "Feminism But Black Inclusive" and immediately was like "this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard or seen" 😭 and they Swarmed and Ganged Up On the first person who called them out. Not okay behavior. We're not going to be nice to people who can't A.) genuinely just look things up. If you look up Womanism, you'll see your search engine literally Gives You key terms to help you in your research. And B.) be open minded and calm when hearing Black terms.

We just can't constantly sacrifice our health for these people, because it is genuinely a lot of work and pressure we're expected to just Offer Up at any time simply Because we are Black and just magically know everything and are now also expected to be spokespeople for our entire race which is unfair.

So yeah, I don't think it was completely unfair that this Black person was mad. They used ways of expressing that in a way I wouldn't have, but I'm very much against the idea that Black people need to be Perfect, Articulate, and Polite to people who are aggressors and who speak ignorance. It might not seem like it to someone who doesn't know what Womanism is, but those people dropped the ball in a Major Way. You can't just trigger marginalized people like that and expect a kind, specifically catered education from strangers just because You don't know something-- sometimes you say something fucked up and people yell at you and everybody should be able to learn from their mistakes in these scenarios.

(also, it could be the autism, but they weren't telling people explicitly to die :') just to choke lol in my mind people can survive choking lol + the whole reason it was said was to be like "you might as well be physically unable to speak because I don't care what you have to say here". Like I said, not the way I choose to express myself personally, but I get why it happened and I don't think they deserve crucifixion about it and I Definitely don't think their anger invalidates them at all.)

TLDR:

BIPOC, Especially Black people do not owe anybody an education. We're just people and it's really strange we're expected to be polite teachers in the face of ignorance and aggression.

Those people were willfully ignorant, called the wrong thing stupid, and then got yelled at by people who belong to a marginalized demographic where that word really matters to them. It's not nice, but it is fair.

It shouldn't be our cross to bear, to educate people who act like this, simply because we were born Black or otherwise POC. Honestly, a lot of the stuff we know, we know because we had to educate ourselves using the same internet we're asking them to use but during our time, there were way less resources. To us, it very much is a matter of needing these people to Want to put in their Own work on their Own time, using the resources that already exist. There's loads of BIPOC authors, journalists, and creators who talk loads about this stuff, and the learning process is kind of like math in the way you can't always just be given information plain and simple on a silver plate without a Lot of other context. Which is also why we have such an emphasis on educating yourself. All you gotta do, essentially, is check Who is writing what you're reading and cross reference different material to make sure you're getting a well rounded understanding of what the general consensus of the community is. I literally used a Britannica article to brush up on my knowledge before posting and it wasn't hard to find :") the article wasn't even written by a Black Person from what I can gather.

This might not be the answer you want, but I trust you to see how these people expecting an education from random Black folk They upset is presumptuous and a bit entitled. She didn't owe anybody any sort of gentleness in this situation, even if she said some mean stuff. It wasn't nice, but neither were they and the whole situation could've been avoided by Them looking things up for themselves before calling something that was heavily implied to be influenced by race stupid. It sucks for people who just Don't Know Shit, but BIPOC aren't obligated to be helpful to people who Already aren't putting in the work.

But the good thing is that there Are loads of preexisting resources from willing professionals from all across the world and all across time who are respected that teach you everything you need to know that are Free and At y'all's finger tips. Y'all just gotta look. The reason we're oftentimes so frustrated is because We also did the same research because we cared about learning this stuff, so we Know if these people cared, they'd do the same thing.

Okay! Very long post lol but I'm done now! I am still open to further questions and clarification but I hope this was helpful. We're all just people in the world, and we're all just learning, but it's good to practice just. Being polite and looking before you leap 😅 because the initial thing that started this whole mess was people saying some really rude stuff about something that means a Lot to us culturally as Black people.

[katyspersonal]

Marika & Messmer are fascists but not the hornsent who chop people to small pieces and put them inside jars to achieve divinity because they believe they're "chosen" people and therefore superior to other races? Have you considered the possibility that sometimes both sides of a war can suck? This is why frenzied flame is the way🙏

Anon, I am going to scold you before I get to the topic because "have you considered [thing]" here should be reserved for a problem when someone is ignorant and in a bad, poor-taste way! Which I was not because obviously I "considered" this! You are referring to a silly post of me liveblogging how I got to Messmer, and so of course I addressed Messmer! I should not add long disclaimer about every other lore-relevant thing when I make a basically liveblog-ish remark to "demonstrate" that I do not let other culprits in the story "get away" either! 😣 For example recently I've been focusing on Fire Knights to express my hatred for religious purism, but later in another post about story of Abyssal Woods I've instead focused my vitriol on Hornsent Inquisitors! There is its own post and time for everything!

Okay back to the LORE with light heart now!! This is true of course that both sides are atrocious; the Hornsent basically pulled a mad cult crusade on the shamans, and very ironically long time after their folks were victims of also a religion-driven crusade! This is basically playing extermination ping-pong for generations and regardless of who "started it", none of the innocent people (children, those who disagree and simply belong to [race], distant descendants that did not DO anything etc) deserved to be exterminated by association.

To get more elaborate, one has to take into consideration just how long the conflict has been going on for, and everything else Marika has done besides the Crusade. The people being killed by Messmer's army are most likely generations apart from the people who hurt Marika's! I've mentioned that earlier where I questioned how Grandam and Hornsent (NPC) seem to not even know why Marika/Messmer went with war at them at ALL. Like, both are/were barbaric in their own way, but there's clearly a side that has suffered enough now. Like, this was such a disgusting conflict that even Marika, who was the one who had it ordered in the first place, felt the need to distance herself from it because it WAS the battle without glory or honor. There were the Hornsent, likely a cult or something, who murdered and mutilated the Shamans back in their time, but Marika was the one who started the war and kept it going even after it was clear that the Hornsent had lost, and ruined the lives of many people that weren't even part of the war in resistance like the Hornsent NPC! (One more nitpick about it is that her/Messmer's war was that of exterminating of all who have no Grace, as opposed to some insane idea on how to force them to be reborn to "join" her type of people hfhhhbhf)

Correct me here if I am wrong, but so far we can't know if ALL Hornsent accepted the practices of Bonny Village and their higher religious institution. The Greater Potentate Cookbooks that we find relating to hefty pots describe the author as having been "haunted by the grotesque practice of his village of birth". This guy didn't sound like he was very proud of what his people were doing, and it's coming from someone who was raised there! There's likely a lot of other Hornsent who found the practice just as disgusting, especially amongst those that didn't do it themselves, but we don't know that because most of them are dead and the ones who remain are understandably upset and distrustful of "our" kind!

🤔 It is also because of this why it's more reasonable to call the two leading figures of a cleansing war fascists than an entire race, because we can't just assume that ALL Hornsent are fascists just because their religious order and justice system is fucked up. We just don't have a key leader figure to redirect such sentiments towards, unlike with the Golden Order! Basically confirmed fascists are Marika, Messmer + Fire Knights + Black Knights + troops, various warriors and perfumers and what not who agreed to participate @ the Hornsent who are doing the potting, the Hornsent who did slaughter Marika's village, and remaining corrupt clerics leaders of the religion!

(On a side note, Frenzied Flame is definitely the answer but y'all shouldn't tell Melina on me hfjjchjgdh)

________

UPDATE 1 from July 4th that I wanted to add in the OG post instead:

I have nothing to add here, all of these are rather fair points! I am a little late with adding these screenshots but you've probably seen some more speculation on the Hornsent Inquisitors these couple of days by me and @val-of-the-north in my blog! Here if you missed these: ( x ) ( x ) The gist of it is that seems like Inquisitors are hunting their fellow Hornsent as heretics for serving the "impure" nobles, but regardless of whether it happened before Marika's mentioned "betrayal" or after, it is STILL horrible to harm people for association with those that didn't even do anything wrong :^)

Still applies that calling the whole race fascist doesn't work (heck, the Hornsent who choose to stand with Midra and Nanaya are confirmation of strong exceptions!), but the sentiment is certainly very strongly rooted culturally.

Sigh.. I am pretty sure there are people somewhere in the fandom that would fall into "hornsent deserved it" pit over this, too. Like "hey, even currently Hornsent culture is a rich soil for Shaman Villages 2.0 and 3.0 and 4.0 and so on to happen, so why not preventively exterminate an inherently dangerous culture?" (..if anyone here really thinks along these lines, please know that this is a dangerous line of thinking and you'll get ideologically groomed into excusing genocides before you know if you don't question what you're implying here) What they needed was more communication with other cultures and adopting more tolerant and humane principles. Seeing that various horn-ness species are just like them rather than sitting in the "we divine they filth" bubble if it is THAT bad. Maybe Marika even HAD the power to provide such change and bridge the gap while she was still a trusted figure to them during her "infiltration", and yet instead of putting and end to terrible traditions with careful planning and diplomacy, she chose the path of revenge..

Genuinely a depressing point to think about. And yes, absolutely doesn't do her a honor to choose ruin and hate.

________

UPDATE 2 from July 11th:

I also completely forgot to back it up that the fellow Hornsent were also facing execution through being stuffed in jars!

Yeah nah, definitely their people in power were so dangerous that should someone protest against the murder of Shamans and alike, they'd meet the same fate.. Having to swallow what your insane authorities do, with your own life in the line, is also something very real. This situation obscures the number of people who are against it from the superficial look.

I myself live in the country where people can't protest against the government unless they want to go to prison or face other dire consequences, so having to sit quietly for the sake of yourself and your own families for the outside world LOOKS like we don't care and ""'"agree""". :)))) Fun stuff. :') Here, anyone who would ask why Hornsent that disagree with their leaders don't express it would technically be in their right to do so, but most people will protect their own life first, especially if sacrificing it won't really avail anything. Again, Elden Ring is incredibly real with these topics. :')

[randomthefox]

The Sonic movies are the most sexist garbage when you actually think about it.

Maddie has effectively no character whatsoever. She's supposed to be a vet, but that LITERALLY NEVER COMES UP IN A RELEVANT WAY in ANY of the three movies. The one time it's even MENTIONED by Tom in the first movie, it's immediately dismissed. He asks her if she can do some veterinary stuff to help Sonic, and she says "lol no but I have smelling salts for humans" so her being a vet literally doesn't matter at all. She has no life or role outside of being Tom's Wife. Maddie does not exist as an individual person, she is ONLY Tom's Wife.

If these movies weren't GARBAGE written by boomer fuckwads, the fact that Maddie is a vet should be of particular significance. She is a healer of animals. Sonic (IN THE VIDEO GAMES!!!!!) is a protector of animals. In the movies he also had a mother figure and lost her. So he really SHOULD feel a longing and connection towards Maddie instead of Tom. But Maddie is a woman, so the script couldn't possibly have her be the one who has a significant role as Sonic's paternal figure. Women are gross. They either need to know their place as a supporter of men, or be killed off like Longclaw was. Thus, Maddie is willing to give up her MEDICAL PRACTICE in Green Hills for the sake of moving to San Fransisco, even offering to go on sabbatical to scope out new places they could move into even though Tom is the one who wants to get a job as a POLICE OFFER in the city and thus should be taking the opportunity to get the lay of the land. Naw, why make sense and be logical? Get this DISGUSTING WOMAN out of the film until she's needed again as per the summoning of the man who owns her.

Maddie is SUCH a NONENTITY that her actor Tika Sumpter literally had to DEMAND that the writers GIVE HER SOMETHING TO FUCKING DO in the second movie. When the person who is supposed to be the lead actress of the movie is forced to resort to that, that means that THE FILM MAKERS ARE SEXIST PIECES OF SHIT you guys.

Also gotta love the way how in the 3rd movie Maddie completely abandons Sonic and the other boys, who are supposed to be her adopted children, to go sit at Tom's bedside. Even though there's nothing she can do for him. She just spends the rest of the fucking movie sitting by his hospital bed. Wordlessly. Instead of taking a proactive part in the rest of the plot by providing emotional support to Sonic. Who desperately NEEDS emotional support at that point. But naw, Maddie needs to be a good little house wife and devote herself thoughtlessly to her husband. I suppose she NEEDED to be at his bedside so in case Tom died of his injuries, she could drink a bottle of poison to kill herself since she wouldn't have any reason to live anymore without her husband. That's the outlook on womens rights I assume the film makers have at least.

I'm not even going to get into fucking Rachel. What an utterly disgusting straight up no joke sickeningly offensive stereotype of a black woman. I have no idea how anybody is okay with this character, she single handedly sets the equal rights movement back at least forty years. Straight up a minstrel show of a character.

And then in the 3rd movie they introduce Director Rockwell. Another example of the filmmakers portraying women as subordinates to men. She has maybe six lines of dialog grand total in the entire film. And her final scene is being tricked by Tom, by exploiting her natural female instinct to be submissive towards a man. He literally orders her to give him the key, which she does even though she is BLATANTLY SUSPICIOUS, and then as soon as she hands the key over she just walks out of the movie. Seriously, Rockwell is never seen again after she hands over the key. There's no resolution to her character whatsoever. But why would a female character need a resolution? After all she's a yucky filthy disgusting stupid woman, so naturally as far as the film makers are concerned she isn't worth writing or filming a resolution for her.

These movies should be roasted at the stake by feminists everywhere. The only reason they aren't is because of The Sonic Double Standard.

[lunar-years]

I think thats why I have a somewhat irrational dislike of Colin- that scene when Jamie came back and the team is yelling the things they want him to apologise for, and you've got Colin acting like he was a poor wronged party this entire time when he was just as bad and skipped out of that blame. At least we see Isaac grow to be a leader, the writers seem to think that Colin coming out the closet/ being gay makes his past behaviour fine?!?

"irrational dislike of Colin" anon please 😭

Short answer: the trouble is they wrote Colin and Isaac as side characters we were meant to only marginally pay attention to, so all the attention/blame went to main character Jamie. Then they decided to give Isaac and Colin more to do, but brushed aside what they'd already done with them as side characters and figured it didn't really matter anyway because probably no one was focused on them (they were wrong) ; first they weren't important enough to spend time on their redemption, and then suddenly they WERE important but their past actions were no longer relevant to who they wanted these two to be as characters.

Long answer: I don't think the writers think Colin coming out of the closet/being gay makes his previous bullying okay, I think they just like, well and truly forgot that they wrote him as a bully. Tbh they did the exact same with Isaac. The switch-up from him being a massive perpetrator of the bullying in s1 to being lovable team captain Isaac is RAPID. It's literally like boom Jamie leaves, so Colin & Isaac are nice again. lmao. HUH?

(in all honesty the first time I watched I was definitely a bit confused that Roy gave Isaac his captain armband, because Roy has such a blatant disdain for Isaac in the first part of the season. Like...that scene where Isaac asks if Roy's going out to the clubs with them and Roy's like "Will you be there? Then fuck no." likeee ngkangk? how did we go from that to "Roy has made Isaac his successor"?? It was very abrupt lmao. Mind you, I adore Isaac & Roy and I think it basically boils down to Roy seeing a lot of himself in Isaac. He hated the aggressive bully version of himself Isaac showed in the locker room but still saw the passion and potential underneath and so he gave him the support he needed. It makes a lot of sense in hindsight. But for all we talk about how good s1 is [and it IS, i would never say otherwise], that relationship didn't really start to develop for the audience until later).

I think the thing that's frustrating to me about Colin (in regards to the fandom, not in the show itself) is that some people quickly woobify him when it comes to being the victim of Nate's bullying but completely ignore that he very much physically and verbally bullied Nate! Both of their actions were reprehensible but a not small part of the fandom loathes only Nate for it. it's the double standard that irks me, which is a running problem I have with this fandom about the treatment of many different characters whoops

[mikarashis]

Thought on the HeliosxEnstars crossover event now that I've finished the translation...

So I guess going into this I'd assumed the story would be pretty light-hearted and not actually have any bearing on the main plot given that not everyone who plays one game will play the other and I'm sure a lot of people might skip it entirely, but that's...not what happened.

Excluding everything with Brad and Faith (which certainly could be brought up in the future since there was some definite progression there), the fact that it addresses Dino returning to Lost Garden and running into Sirius is actually very relevant to the plot so I'm surprised it happened in a collab story, of all things!

But back to the enstars characters: Ritsu was so good throughout this entire story, and I always love when Ritsu gets serious about something because it adds so many layers to his character. I love how quickly he and Faith bonded and that he could immediately tell that Faith and Brad weren't...okay with the current status of their relationship but would likely never be able to move past that without outside help. Of course, Ritsu and Rei have their own issues, but at least for Ritsu there's this impression that he's, if not content, at least accepting of how they are right now and he knew it was different for Faith and Brad.

So I think it makes perfect sense that he'd try to help, and his interactions with both Faith and Brad were so good...I kind of want more, to be honest, but I'm glad it was a big focus of the story.

Koga and Akira were very cute, too, although they were mainly side characters, but again they related to each other instantly and you could tell Akira was missing him in the end...

As for Rei, while I do kind of wish he'd interacted with the heroes more, I didn't think Eclipse would play as big a role in this event as they did and having them with Rei makes a lot of sense because Rei...can handle himself, but it once again played into his major character weakness of believing people to inherently be much better than they might actually be.

It's a nice bit of character continuity, and Sirius being so taken with Rei is completely in-character for him as well so their conversation was really interesting from a lot of different angles.

And while I'd considered that they'd leave the door open for future collab events, the fact that this coffin is just a...Narnia-wardrobe that can ferry people back and forth between the two universes makes it very, very easy for it to be implemented in the future.

Overall, this was super fun and more emotional than I thought it would be, and we've been waiting for this collab for a long time so I think it definitely lived up to the anticipation.

[callme-whatyoulike]

All I Need to Hear

this picture isn't entirely relevant to the story. but it's how i imagined him looking in this one. also, here's some songs that i imagine would be playing during this. one of my favorite "genres" of music is slow love songs to dance in the kitchen to. all i need to hear is one of those songs. it should be played at a wedding. anyway. just a little fluff piece. i like it very much. enjoy ♡♡

"I'm home!"

I look at the clock. 9:37. Another late evening at the studio. I'd grown used to this, of course, but late evenings weren't particularly enjoyable when I felt like utter crap. I woke up this morning with a headache and a sore throat, but the symptoms have since escalated. It's taken everything I've had not to just go to bed. But we're busy tomorrow, and things need done around the house.

It would have all just been a bit easier with Matty here. But I didn't tell him that. He would have come straight home, and even though he tells me that I'm never a bother, I didn't want to inconvenience him.

But he's here now. I'm just starting the dishes as I hear him walk through the door. He finds his way to the kitchen, setting his things onto the counter.

"I'm so sorry, darling," he says, pressing a quick kiss onto the top of my head. "I didn't expect to stay that long."

"S'alright," I reply.

"Will you ever forgive me?"

"I'll consider it." He smirks at me.

"Need help?" he asks, glancing at the soapy water and unclean pots and plates.

"No, that's okay. You go shower, I'll get these finished in no time."

"You sure?"

"Positive."

He hesitates. Kisses me on the temple. Heads to the bathroom. It's just dishes. I can rest afterward. Although there are boxes to unpack in the office, still. I should get that done at some point. Perhaps that's where all of our spoons have gone.

As I ponder the whereabouts of our silverware, hum along to whatever songs are shuffling on my playlist, and scrub pans that have sat on the counter since yesterday's lunch, Matty quickly showers, dresses, and makes his way back to the kitchen, just as I'm draining the sink.

"Do you know where that gray shirt went?" he asks me, peeking into the entryway to see if there might be unopened boxes hiding away there.

"That's rather vague, dear." I do, somehow, know which one he's talking about, though. "But no, I've not seen it."

"Damn. Probably in whatever box the spoons are in." I hum in agreement. I turn and finally get a good look at him for the first time since this morning. He's dressed into his pajamas, his hair is a damp mess. No shirt, as our previous conversation just revealed. He looks tired.

I must look just as exhausted because his expression changes. It softens a bit once I finally look up at him. We don't have to tell each other it was a long day. We just know.

A good song is playing. Slow. One of our favorites. Good for dancing in a kitchen.

He opens his arms, and I fall right into them, wrapping mine around him. We sway ever so slightly, resting our heads on the other's shoulder. I have to stand on my toes a bit to do that. Matty very quietly hums to the song. And we stay like this for a while, even as the next song begins to play.

I answered the question that I knew Matty would eventually ask me: why didn't you tell me you were having a bad day?

"I didn't want to inconvenience you."

"Have you forgotten everything we've discussed?" he laughs.

"I know," I sigh. "But you were working. I know you would drop everything to be here if I said anything."

"Is that such a bad thing?"

I giggle. "Yes, Matthew. As much as we would both love it, we can't put everything else on hold just because we want to stay in bed together all day."

"Oh, I don't know." He kisses my cheek quickly, sways a little harder. "I don't think anyone would mind." He pulls his head back, looking down at me now. His lips crinkle into a smile. "I mean, look at you. I'm sure they'd understand."

"I look like hell, Matty." And I do. I haven't done anything with my hair since I showered this morning. My face is entirely makeup free. I've got sweatpants, a sports bra, and my favorite oversized cardigan and socks on. I'm not exactly a sight for sore eyes.

"You do not." Another kiss, this time on the forehead. "Never, darling."

"You have to say that."

"Maybe. But that doesn't make it any less true."

I roll my eyes at him and resort to resting my head against his chest now. Another song is playing now. Something about fooling around and falling in love. Seems fitting.

"I know I say it a lot," Matty starts, "but you can tell me about your bad days, okay?" His hand runs up and down my back. "I want you to bother me. I want to make room for you in my day, in my life, yeah?" He holds me a bit tighter. "Please, just bother me."

I nod. "Okay." I mean it. At least right now.

"D'you want to go to bed?"

"There's still boxes to unpack in the office."

"It can wait."

"Then absolutely."

"Good. Me, too."

[go-go-devil]

okay the ask of all time: how do you think various dark souls characters stim? could be relevant to your fic or not, up to you! [if you want to introduce modern stimming to them (like how daniil dankovsky now has ye olde snake tangle) that's also groovy]

🖤🔥EXCELLENT QUESTION🔥🖤

I've got a good amount of stim headcanons for certain characters! Some of them may end up getting highlighted in To The Accursed, but this answer won't spoil anything for the fic per say so don't worry.

(I should also specify that this will only focus on DS1 characters since I'm not finished with 2 and haven't played 3 yet)

Well to get the obvious out of the way I know Siegmeyer is a major vocal stimmer. All those “Mmmmmmm, hmmmmm’s” he does whenever he’s deep in thought comes across like he’s trying to keep himself calm so he doesn’t get frustrated in each of his predicaments. I can’t blame him, and I’ve even found myself parroting his hums after first hearing his dialogue since it helps me out too!

Though we sadly don’t see much of Sieglinde, I imagine she too has a similar vocal stim as her father. We just don’t get to hear it because we never run into her experiencing the same bouts of indecision as he does.

Big Hat Logan I imagine is very tactile. He’ll rub the ends of his sleeves or his robe’s collar when he’s feeling anxious, and would especially love the textures of a book’s spine and pages (only the GOOD books though, he refuses to read any in bad condition unless they’re the only source of the knowledge he’s seeking). Logan’s also invented his own stim sorceries: complex but intentionally weak little glowing patterns with satisfying sounds he casts simply because the act of casting them feels so good!

We already know the Undead Merchant Woman hyperfixates on moss, so it wouldn't be a surprise if her major stim come from peeling the plants and kneading her fingers deep into each of the clumps. I can even see her talking to herself while she does it too. Her voice does kinda work for an ASMR lol.

Solaire... I'm actually not entirely dead set on his stims at the moment. If the npc models weren't so stiff I could definitely see him flapping his hands a lot, especially when he's allowed to infodump. Hell, his Praise the Sun gesture could be a stim for all we know!

Patches I can totally see as a nail-biter. He also used to pick at his hair often back when he still had any, and even after shaving it all off the muscle memory occasionally causes him to reach up and scratch his head. Though of course we mustn't forget his absolute favorite form of stimming: kicking people off of cliffs >:-)

And a bonus! My oc, Leiurus, often self-soothes by rocking back and forth while sitting down. She also particularly likes grabbing things, whether it be her own clothing or any nice looking trinkets she finds, most especially ones that have a good texture like fine robes or scales.

[writingseaslugs]

Fic Idea Time!

Okay guys, so I have an idea that's been bouncing in my mind for a week and I want to know your thoughts. It would be an actual 20 chapter fic so I'm not sure if I'll be able to commit fully to it, but I mean...even just talking about it seems like fun. So here's the basic concept:

No beta, I die like the idiot I am

You couldn't believe it...and yet at the same time it was exactly the type of shit that Crowley would do. You stared at the demons before you, wondering exactly how you came to have such an interesting, yet annoying life. "So you're telling me...I was signed up against my will for an exchange program, and now I'm stuck here for a year?" You asked, feeling the annoyance coming through in waves. "I wasn't aware it was against your will, I offer my apologies." The head honcho demon, Diavolo, said with a sympathetic smile, "However the contract has already been sealed. Though I will say, we weren't expecting to have two students from your school." "Hey! Watch it, I'm The Powerful and Mighty Grim, future best wizard in the world!" Grim said, standing proudly. Lucifer looked annoyed that Grim would speak out of terms when you spoke up. "Well if the contract was for a single student, then technically this is correct. Grim and I are enrolled at Night Raven as a single student since I can't use magic." You explained with a sigh. Oh how annoying to have to explain all of this, not to mention you doubted they'd want a student who couldn't use magic and has a monster cat as a best friend. "You can't use blot magic, well that's fine." Diavolo laughed, "We don't use blot magic in the Devildom, so you'll be fine." You and Grim looked at one another confused, "Blot Magic?" You both said in unison. "Let me explain, since it's not common knowledge even in the human realm. There's different types of magic. Blot magic is the one you're accustomed to, which can only be harnessed by certain people." Lucifer said, "Here we use demonic magic, a different class of magic that doesn't accumulate blot, but takes something else entirely." "And what does it take?" You couldn't help but feel that small sliver of hope that you might be capable of using magic. "That's for you to find out during the exchange program." Lucifer's cold smile bore into you and you felt a shiver run down your spine. Well...guess you had some motivation for staying in the Devildom. Besides...perhaps they knew a way to get you home?

Well there you have it, a small blurb of the idea. Basically Crowley is given a notice about an exchange program and forges MC's signature (Aka the Reader), and MC and Grim are sent to the Devildom at the exchange students for an entire year. The ideas I have for the AU are the following:

Different types of magic, Blot Magic and Demonic Magic. Demonic Magic has a special way to harness that is revealed later in the story.

Pacts and their markings work differently in this AU for MC.

MC has a background due to plot relevance, but will be kept as vague as I can.

Possible romance, but not locked in. There wouldn't be any romance between the brother's at least. It would be at the end of the story where it deviates to different romantic routes for the Twisted cast.

MC can't contact their friends at the college while they're in the Devildom.

Briar Valley and the Devildom have some connections. The Fae and Demons often mingle.

Solomon is a mentor figure for MC throughout the entire story, meanwhile Luke is MC's newly appointed (self appointed) guardian angel.

There's now a reason MC ended up in Twisted Wonderland, and it's revealed late into the story.

Grim still has amnesia but bits of his AU backstory is slowly revealed throughout the story.

If anyone has any ideas though, I'd be happy to hear it. I haven't begun outlining things just yet, but I am compiling ideas slowly and would love to hear feedback from you guys. I have the basic plot in my head though, but like differences for AU's like...please gimme thoughts. Drop into my ask box. I will add them to the growing list of ideas. If I get enough feedback it might motivate me to start on this project.

[salora-rainriver]

We're talking about Ads Again

Context for those followers of mine who weren't there: I made a post about tumblr ads being weird back in 2016 and it's literally still getting notes to this day. People responded GREAT to it. honestly, despite being like. ass old at this point and written by a literal high schooler, it's still pretty good! I thank my dad being in advertising helped significantly. I had an expert witness.

Tonight, I'm writing the sequel to that post. the sequel is this post.

let's just fucking dive into it or whatever.

why am I doing this?

okay for starters I made that post in goddamn 2016 and I refuse to believe my insights into the marketing world have not improved since then.

Also, the marketing world has CHANGED. Huge swaths of my old post are no longer relevant. What we saw with tumblr ads in 2016 was in some parts a passing fad, and in other parts the harbinger of a new wave of influencer marketing and corporate parasociality (I coined that term just now).

Honestly I've been thinking for a while that I should make an update post, but what with, yanno, adulthood, that's been kinda hard!

Well, I've missed a train, and it's Christmas, so I've finally found the time to do that.

What has Changed?

in my personal life... dad got fired! yeah it fucking sucks. the good news is he and his wife are working towards their retirement now, shifting away from the industry overall. Good news as far as life is concerned, but it does mean I no longer have as clean a connection to the Industry as I used to.

but more importantly, why he got fired. The fact is, dad's old! I know, shocker. More than just being old, though, his field (and my stepmom's field - they both did the same work) represents an older paradigm of advertisement. he did TV spots and posters, not ad reads for Raid Shadow Legends. He was great at his work, but we're in an era of data-driven, maximalist, google adsense, low-barrier-to-entry, super-fast and super-cheap digital advertisement.

Well, more specifically,

We're on the cusp of an extinction event poised to bring said era crashing to the ground.

Pictured: the current vibes in the ad world

Siberia is on Fire and Everything is Dying

So given that my typical source on stuff like this is currently unemployed, I decided to hit good ol google (well, google and duckduckgo. fitting given what we're talking about) to see if I could get any insights into what the current state of advertising is.

and the short of it is that everyone says the end is nigh. check this out:

Digital is dead, and so is TV. God fucking damn. BY THE WAY, I loved these two articles. Chris Gadek, a man I only learned about today, is clearly an excellent writer and his professional insights are probably gonna be way better than my amateur synthesis of the half-dozen different articles I read today, including his.

blatant shilling for random article writers aside, let's get on to my half-baked synthesis, starting with:

What Set Siberia on Fire

In small part, it's the same issues facing most major companies and industries in our late capitalist world: Hubris.

As this New York Times article points out, we've got a low barrier of entry into a gargantuan industry that's increasingly pumping out slop to follow a strategy of 'more is more'. And we've all seen the bizarre mobile game ads and shady scams that have resulted from THAT.

On top of that, we've also got the fucking digital privacy issue shaking up the entire world as consumers increasingly don't like being spied on (imagine that), and the EU starts rolling out heavy restrictions on the data harvesting that was fueling a bunch of this advertisement bubble.

There's also the ad fraud. Oh, you didn't hear about that? Well, it's nothing much, just that lots of bots are clicking ads to falsify click metrics, artificially inflating the effectiveness of said ads. look, it even has a wikipedia article

oh and Facebook did it. Facebook did ad fraud. :)

and I'm not even getting into everything that works to shake up or demolish basically every advertisement channel out there - the decline of cable tv and print newspapers, the increasing use of ad blockers, the crisis of consumer trust, etc etc.

In short we are looking at a multitude of micro-crises all working together to make the environment unlivable for most current forms of advertisement.

in other words: an extinction event!

Who's Gonna Survive

And just like in a real extinction event, whether or not you survive depends on how good you can adapt to the brave new world you've found yourself in. Old school advertising needs to drastically rethink their everything if they're gonna stay afloat, and every field of the industry needs to recreate itself. As my new favorite writer Chris Gadek says,

"These crises show that there are no safe havens. You can’t substitute one advertising medium for another. Rather than pivot, the advertising industry must adapt and learn to effectively use the channels at their disposal (TV included), factoring in the seismic societal and technological changes that have occurred over the past decade and beyond."

and what is that going to look like? what's going to be the new face of advertising?

The field seems torn, at first... but also aligned, at least when it comes to the core principles:

privacy is a big issue. Seems like a lot of advertisers are seeing an end to wanton consumer surveillance, and looking into less invasive ways to gather important and meaningful data

companies that rely on selling ad space and propping up their engagement metrics are going to be relied on less, probably, because the metrics themselves are being seen as less reliable (for good freaking reason)

regaining consumer trust is going to be a massive priority in the future.

overall, we're probably going to look at a massive downturn in ads, as people turn to a quality-over-quantity strategy in an attempt to stop flooding the attention marketplace.

that's the gist I'm getting from reading oh so many different articles of varying quality from so many different sources.

So, yanno, there may be some hope out there. If smart people start leading this industry (lol), we may get to actually enjoy ads.

Yeah. Enjoy ads.

Unironically.

I know, it's crazy.

PS: if you start seeing affiliate links on mainstream TV ads, thank our lord of excellent business analysis Chris Gadek for calling it early. God, that's such a crazy left-field idea and I really want it to actually happen.

[genericpuff]

ULO user here! I recently went back and found several old comments I'd made on LO while I was a huge fan of it in 2019.. so embarassing looking back lol. You mentioned that you used to send a bunch of "fangirl" messages back in the day- would love to see your old thoughts/opinions back when you loved LO to compare as a fun(if a bit melancholic) journey, if you'd be willing to share a few? Your thoughts/analysis are always amazing, but I'm super curious as to how you felt back before you realized what a shitshow it was

Haha yeah, I was a fangirl in the sense of like... always being on time for new updates, even if I was out doing other things, messaging my real life friend who got me into the comic to talk about it. Back then Saturday was the height of my week, sometimes the cliffhangers would get me so excited I'd spend the entire week thinking about what could happen next. I suppose I do still look forward to Saturdays now, but for much different reasons.

It's a lil' shameful looking back but I did used to be one of those "don't like it don't read it" dickheads LOL I also used to "not see the issue" with the age gap thing, not because I was okay with age gaps, but as someone who tends to write about immortal beings, I followed the same line of thinking that "they're gods, it shouldn't matter", until I realize just how silly it was that if that were the case, the comic wouldn't be constantly calling out the age difference and drawing Persephone to look as young as possible. I had to really sit on LO for a long time before I started seeing the issues with it. Ironically what opened my eyes to it was lurking in the #antiloreolympus hashtag every now and then, I'd be reading the opinions like "these opinions suck! they don't get it! they're just being nitpicky/mean/etc.!" and yet I duped myself by doing just that because it exposed me to other points of view which became more and more relevant as the comic declined in quality. I think it was around the trial arc that I started to notice the holes (one of the big tells for me that maaaybe LO didn't know what it was doing was when Persephone chose Hades to be her lawyer despite him being one of the judges and someone she was romantically involved with, like hello?) and then when the series returned from its mid-season hiatus and skipped right over Persephone's time in the Mortal Realm, that was when I realized the criticisms weren't coming from nowhere and I got off the high horse and started to read their points with more of an open mind.

Of course, I can safely say I wasn't as shitty as some of the stans can be, most of my opinions were just in the weekly discussion threads in the LO sub, but I was still giving my opinions on LO as if it was a Canvas comic, failing to recognize that 1.) just because webcomics are a budding industry doesn't mean they should be exempt from criticism, and 2.) LO isn't anywhere near the same level as Canvas, it's a #1 NYT best selling book with a creator who's won awards, so it absolutely should be subject to criticism and analyzing as LO is representing that same budding industry in a lot of ways.

I'm trying to find stuff from my pre-ULO days but unfortunately nothing from my main profile is loading past the last 9 months LMAO But if I do find any specific examples I'll definitely post them so we can roast past me together (*≧︶≦))(￣▽￣* )ゞI definitely remember back when ULO was created, it came at a perfect time I think LOL

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

You know, what's another good reason why Miguel’s canon theory is faulty?

It’s because in his quest to save the multiverse and preserve the ‘canon’, Miguel and his Spider Society keep breaking the ‘canon’.

I rewatched the movie, and something occurred to me… Miguel and Jess broke the Canon in like the first 30 minutes!

Because of Miguel, Jess and Vulture actions indirectly caused the loss of a canonical event: The death of Gwen's father, George Stacy. And because of that, Gwen’s father is not only alive, but he quit the police force, so he’s not a police captain anymore.

Not to mention, there is a very real implication that the Spider-Society is inadvertently preventing Spider-People from realising their own heroic destinies in their own universes.

Because the more I thought about it, I realized that the five months that Gwen spends with the Spider Society are five long months that her own home is unprotected by Spider-Woman…

Think about how many other worlds are in danger because their Spider-Man/Spider-Woman wasn't/isn’t around to protect it because they were with the Spider Society or they might have died on some mission with the Society.

Okay, I don't remember if I answered this, so let me start with this:

Miguel and Jessica didn't technically interrupt any canon when they appeared in Gwen's universe. Gwen is suppose to lose her father due to a battle against her own arch-nemesis.

Fun fact, in the comics the Vulture is the first villain we see her take; but Gwen say it: this isn't her vulture. She doesn't know this man.

There is no canon to interrupt, because that event is suppose to happen with her own arch-nemesis. Is this exact reason why I say that Pavitr couldn't have a canon event, Spot wasn't his nemesis; so I need to keep that consistently.

That being said: yeah, Gwen being a few months away from home is bad, but-

As far as I know, nowhere in the movie it says that Gwen has been away for 5 months, but I could be wrong, so if you or someone else knows when that was mentioned, please say so.

Regardless- I did find strange the idea of Gwen staying in the Society; after all, she is suppose to deal with her own canon events.

I never went too hard on this, because is one of those plot holes that are there because the story works better for it.

What I mean by this is that Gwen having be at stake her safe place after running for home is much, much interesting; that let's say, Gwen needing to deal with the consequences of the fallout and now she doesn't have a reason to keep her loyalty.

If you want a similar plot hole; in ITSV Gwen comes a week early in the movie...and the entire logic falls apart because of this.

As far as we know, there is no reason why Gwen came early unlike the others; despite being a week in this universe, she doesn't seem to be glitching more or to look closer to disappearing than the rest. Speaking of which- how did she got there? Spider-sense is about sensing danger, not detecting a new spidey that has yet to be bitten. To not say, how she could just get a room, be part of classes, and not only no one noticing there is no paperwork of her existence, she doesn't glitch in public AT ALL, after being there for a week?

Now, chances are you weren't familiar with this last issue; because is not the point. Establishing Gwen's and Miles' connection earlier is more important than all of this; the movie never brings attention to fact, which means is not relevant.

The reason I go hard about Pavitr not living a canon event, is that it is shown in camera to us, which means we are suppose to pay close attention.

Now, I know a lot of people would insist that a perfect story has no plot holes, and I am not going to argue if you don't like when the story has these loose ends.

But in my personal opinion? If it makes the story more interesting, and you don't need to bring attention to it, sometimes bending the rules a bit good.

Though, if I am honest, if I am correct about my predictions...then there is an aspect of the movie that could be a plot hole that I have an issue with.